The last Outcasts before the show is yanked from its plum position on Monday's schedule to a new, less enviable slot on Sunday nights where it will hopefully do better than the repeats of QI that currently reside in that spot. Who'd have thought the show itself would be an outcast? The stench of defeat hangs in the air, mixing with the similarly pungent odours of missed opportunities and squandered resources. But last week's was sort of OK; maybe if they can maintain some momentum in that direction all won't be lost. In that case, tonight's is a very important episode but again it's something of a curate's egg. The producers, like the characters in the show, seem to learn nothing from episode to episode – as seen by how Cass and Fleur are back to being best buddies after he totally betrayed her to the cost of Elijah's life last week. All forgiven and forgotten, apparently.

Last week there was an odd little line delivered by Cass, while on the hunt for the escaped AC, about Patrick Baxter, the first man on Carpathia. As we know that this sort of show is all about clumsily foreshadowing events, it was clear this name would be important. So there was little surprise when Baxter, under his nickname Pak, rolled into town and started a fight in the local bar Can-91. Pak, well played by Garry Lewis (an actor who has done great work in films such as Valhalla, best known for being Billy Elliot's dad) in a performance that made a little go a long way. The dialogue must have only been written to provide difficulty for whoever had to speak it – Pak's moving story about the first AC on Carpathia who the writers named Tigger-99, a name silly enough to diffuse any seriousness the tale held. Pak showers the bar in diamonds. Cut diamonds no less. Diamonds found in the wild, as these were supposed to be, look nothing like them. Is this yet another example of the show's ethos of it's-set-in-space-so-who-cares? Oh, and apparently the planet is covered in radioactive hotspots, thanks for finally telling us that.

Cass and Fleur's journey with Pax at least held the interest, even if the final destination was a little pointless storywise. Lewis's character and the actor himself acted rings around the two increasingly gormless PAS officers. At least it looked like it was going somewhere which was more than the B-stories managed this week. As many commenters have noted, there's a chance that the colonists might be similar to the story in The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy where the planet Golgafrincham fooled all their useless citizens (management consultants, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, etc) into thinking they were being sent into space to avoid an oncoming catastrophe. That would seem to be why Carpathia seems to be populated entirely by people who are terrible at their jobs.

We've seen the ineffectual PAS officers at work, this week it's Stella who commits some sackable offences. First off, we get her scene with Tate when he informs her he's been playing chess with his long-dead children. Stella's "If anyone else had said that..." remark was the complete opposite of what she should have been saying. If anyone else had claimed such a thing she'd have looked into it, given them a thorough examination. But as it's Tate, who's only the president of an entire planet, she lets him get on with it. It almost seems he's begging her to do her bloody job when he bristles at her calling them hallucinations but seems far more comfortable with the more ludicrous term "visions".

Later we get more of her impressive science knowledge when, in one of the worst no-consequences, fake tension and danger sequences the show has delivered so far, when Jack gets a bad reaction to an insect bite. "Insect bites can be like that." quips professor Stella and the whole thing is instantly forgotten. Honestly, she's so poorly written I'm starting to side with her pointlessly sulky daughter, who was attacked by hoodies this week, in a Daily Mail version of Battlestar Galactica's take on the War On Terror. A science fiction show should tear events from the headlines, it's just that they should choose the headlines with a little more care. Also, for a while it looked like Stella and Jack were going to turn the tables on the ACs who had attacked them and launch a counterstrike. What happened to that plotline? It just vanished.

So, after all this diamonds are bad, old people can be confusing treading water we get a little bit of promise in the closing scenes. The skeletons in the surf held promise but again Stella's scientific approach was to just leave them there and try to forget it. It's a wonder these people ever made it into space, let alone manage to tie their shoelaces, with such inquiring minds. The skeletons, the mysterious ACs, the visions, etc, are all pointing to the show ending in a big reveal, but what will it be? Maybe they're all clones, or they're all dead? Or maybe it's all been the dream of a TV writer who was watching Lost but fell asleep when it all got too confusing for him. We'll find out soon but will it be soon enough? Quick answer: no.

There was some excitement generated by the final shot, more than the usual sense of relief that comes when an episode of Outcasts finally grinds to a close. Julius's call to the oncoming spaceship raised quite a few more questions. I just wish he'd asked them to hurry up and get to Carpathia.